Kevin Anderson, I’m talking to you, bud.
Do you hate football? Do you hate organized sports in general?
You’re the athletic director at Maryland, and I assumed some sort of appreciation for sports might be a prerequisite for that position, but perhaps I’m wrong, because you sure seem to be doing everything you can to run the football team (and, by extension, much of the rest of the athletic department - see “sports cancelled due to lack of football-generated funds”) straight into the ground.
Do you have it out for the football program under your purview? I find it hard to believe anyone could do such an awful job unintentionally.
On the heels of Maryland’s 2-10 season and the steady exodus of players (8 and counting, as of today), the Terps and offensive coordinator Gary Crowton have “parted ways” and The Baltimore Sun is reporting that he will be replaced by none other than Mike Freakin’ Locksley.
It seemed like Crowton had a foot out the door last week when he reached out to Colorado State, his alma mater, about its coaching vacancy. He didn’t get the job, and now he doesn’t have one at Maryland either.
While it’s understandable that the Terps weren’t happy with Crowton’s blatant desire to coach the Rams if he had the chance, I’m not sure he should’ve been “let go” because of it. No one should be surprised if a coordinator is interested in a possible opportunity to become a head coach - particularly when that opportunity is at a school to which the coordinator has such strong ties. He could’ve/should’ve been more discreet in pursuing it, but anyone who expects Gary Crowton to go on about the offensive coordinator position at Maryland being his “dream job” a la Edsall is just delusional.
Then again, any athletic director who so much as entertains the vague notion of hiring Mike Locksley is clearly out of touch with reality.
Let’s refresh: Locksley played at Towson and was a top-notch recruiter as an assistant coach at Maryland. Good start.
Since then, though, he’s gotten into “an altercation” with an assistant coach (i.e., he punched the dude), he put up a 2-26 record as the head coach at New Mexico, and he was fired from that job soon after a teenager claiming to be a recruit was pulled over for a DUI while driving Locksley’s SUV. He turned out to be a friend of Locksley’s son, not a recruit, but still, Locksley proved to be far more trouble that he’s worth, and it’s incomprehensible that Maryland would consider him for the opening.
When Anderson began his search for a replacement for Ralph Friedgen (misstep #1), Locksley’s name was inevitably thrown around - very casually - because of his successful recruiting in the area. It was a bad idea then, when it was just a vague idea, and even if he’d only be the offensive coordinator, it’s still a terrible move, worse if it’s actually close to happening.
If the Sun’s sources are correct and Locksley is Maryland’s next offensive coordinator, the Terps will have just about hit rock bottom. As a Maryland fan, I thought the state of the football team was unacceptable, or just plain bad, this year. If Locksley is hired, I’m pretty sure it’s going to get even worse.
